Prevention
by Aerilon452
Summary: John and Helen use a device made my the vampires to come back 70 years in the past to stop a war between Abnormals and Humans.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: John and Helen come back to stop the first stages of a war that could break out between humans and Abnormals.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Sanctuary

Rating: T+

Pairing: Helen and John.

**PREVENTION:**

John stood in the center of the Cathedral trying not to focus on what he and Helen were about to do. _Time travel,_ John thought. It sounded so ridiculous to think, let alone say. But then again, the Vampires were geniuses; they knew how to make their inventions work. Still the idea of time travel boggled his mind. Yet, Helen as determined to do this; she wanted it, and John was never able to deny her anything. He slipped his hands in to the pockets of his trench coat and waited for her to come down. In his pocket he felt the leather cord and the locket he always kept. Pulling his hands out John used the leather to this his long black hair back at the nape of his neck. For twenty years now he had let his hair grow thick and long. He hadn't done it for Helen; he had grown it out for himself. John had been given a new lease on live 35 years ago as well as a second chance with Helen.

"You know, there is a chance that this might not work." Nikola snapped fiddling with final adjustments. He couldn't believe that he was in one of her Sanctuaries again. Helen had thrown him out of her life permanently, and yet she had called him back after 64 years to have him help her. It made his head spin and his anger fire at the thought. Was what he had done so terrible? He became a vampire again and that seemed so terrible to her. Nikola had only used the Source blood, the same source blood that had altered her daughter. Why shouldn't he use it? Nikola had found the last bit of Source Blood the Cabal had stolen and he used it to regain his identity and then Helen had thrown him out. She never made sense to him.

"You're supposed to be a genius Nikola, just make it work."

John turned to see Helen striding up the stone isle towards him. She was a vision to his eyes. His Helen was a woman with a barely restrained wild side. It was a far cry from who she used to be, the version from 70 years ago. John mapped her body, took in all she was wearing. Her long legs were incased in worn, scuffed, black leather pants that fed into boots that were secured to her with buckles, laces, and a zipper. Her upper body was covered in a black t-shirt with a deep V-neck. She wore a long black trench coat similar to his. Her clothing these days were always similar to his. John strode to her and whispered, "He's doing the best he can. Not even Nikola can make everything work."

"I heard that!" The vampire shouted.

John chuckled slipping his arms around her waist. "Are you certain about this?"

Helen slipped her arms up and draped them over his broad shoulders, "Yes, we have to stop this war between humans and abnormals." We have to stop what was done to me. Helen didn't say that out loud. She knew John liked the way she was now; he liked the wildness that was spliced into her. Leaning foreword Helen touched her forehead to John's chest. Taking a deep breath Helen pushed the instincts that told her to be on guard deep down and let comfort from John seep into her body.

"Ok," Nikola clapped his hands together, "I think I'm ready to power this thing up provided that you two cobbled this together right." He finished, his arrogance ringing in his voice.

Helen pulled out of John's arms and snapped, "The only reason you are here is as a human battery." She went to step within the circle and waited for John. Just seeing Nikola after 64 years was enough to make her feral side snap and snarl; the side that the resurrected Cabal had spliced into her already changed DNA.

Letting Helen calm herself John moved over to where Nikola stood with his hands wrapped around two conductors, "Will this work?" He asked. As it was John was the buffer between Helen and Nikola. Not quite sure on how he ended up as such since his distaste for Nikola ran deeper than Helen's.

"It should. My people were brilliant, but even then…." Nikola trailed off. Even he knew in his infinite arrogance knew not to tamper with time. Nikola leaned his forearms on the conductors and said, "I'm lucky Helen isn't chaining me to this thing."

"She would have, I talked her out of it." John answered. That fight he had had with Helen had culminated on fiery kisses and brutal scratch marks up his back. One never courted her anger without paying the price in passion. John smiled and turned to head to Helen.

"I should respect that she chose you," Nikola said barely catching John before he had a chance to leave, "But I don't. Helen deserves better than you." He had been waiting to say that for years.

John wasn't angry, wasn't going to hurt Nikola. "That may be your opinion, but she chose me. She loves me. She married me." His thumb fiddled with the silver band on his left ring finger. Never had he thought that Helen would wake him, drag him down to a nameless river and have a priest marry them. When he had asked her about it, Helen had only said her life wasn't anything without him. John couldn't have been happier. "Just get it working, and if all goes well, she might not throw you out of her life." Moving away John joined Helen in the center of the circle.

Helen had used her heightened hearing to listen to Nikola and John. She wanted to punch Nikola in saying that she deserved better than John. John was all she had ever wanted, would always want in her long life. In two hundred years no one ever compared to him. it was why she married John; he was the only one strong enough to tempt her, to take her anger and pay the price in her wild passion. Nikola may be a vampire again, but she never wanted him like that. His arrogance made her head hurt and his utter lack of consideration for others infuriated her. But then again it was Nikola and he only got involved when his goals were threatened. As mad as she was at him, Helen knew she needed his brilliance.

"Ready for this?"

John's voice slid over her senses and soothed her. "Yes, I am." Turning to him she was brought into the warmth of his body, his arms going around her while she wrapped her arms around his waist pillowing her head on his chest.

"When you're ready Nikola," John shouted over to the vampire who had once again wrapped his hands around the energy conductors to power the device that would send that back 70 years in the past for just one week. If they couldn't accomplish what they wanted to in a week, then they were stuck with their present just the way it was; a war between humans and abnormals.

Using all of his powers Nikola fueled the device. In a blinding flash and a sonic boom John and Helen disappeared from the cathedral leaving Nikola alone. His strength was sapped; he fell to the floor and passed out.

**70'S YEARS AGO:**

Will Zimmerman sat behind his desk trying in earnest to tune Nikola Tesla out and all the excuses as to why he needed money. All Will got out of it was a new project; that was where he just stopped listening. He was trying to focus on his computer screen when a flash lit up outside his window and a loud boom. Jumping from his seat he went to the window. "What the hell?" Standing out in the courtyard where two figures and both of them collapsed. Giving no more thought to Tesla, Will rushed out of the office.

Helen held tight to John as she felt something akin to electricity break out over her body. It reminded her of John's power, only magnified. She held him closer feeling the pulses intensify until a blinding flash engulfed them taking them away with a loud sonic boom. With her senses regained Helen pulled back from John and saw the courtyard of her home. She felt relieved and dizzy. Blackness stole her vision and all Helen could feel was the ground against her back.

John felt Helen in his arms, felt the tingling, and then he was in the light of day of the once beautiful courtyard of Helen's Sanctuary. He swayed his mind dizzy. His vision cleared for only a moment, just enough to see Helen fall to the ground. He wanted to catch her, to keep her standing, but his own body was quickly failing, bringing him down to the ground. His vision blanked as he too let his mind fall into blackness.

Will, with Nikola hot on his heels, rushed out to the front courtyard. He was the first to get to the two bodies lying on the ground. Neither of them were moving. But what shocked him the most was that the bodies were that of John Druitt and his friend and employer Helen Magnus. They had only left on a mission two days ago. Magnus had said that they wouldn't be back for at least a week. What happened to make them come back early? Moving over to Magnus Will felt her pulse; it was strong and steady. "Check Druitt." Will snapped out. More than anything his concern for his friend was dictating his mood.

"You check him." Nikola curled his lip. Checking to make sure 'Johnny' Druitt was ok was extremely repugnant to him.

"Do it or you don't get the money you need," Will snapped back. He was slowly learning how to handle Tesla, short of shooting him.

"You're learning." Nikola crouched down beside Druitt and felt the pulse at his wrist; strong and steady. Taking a second look, there were noticeable differences in the Druitt that left with Helen two days ago vs. the Druitt that was lying here unconscious. "William," He looked at Helen's second in command, "Do you notice anything different about these two?"

"What?" Will asked quickly, but looking at Magnus again he did notice a few differences. There was a silver band on her left ring fingers, her hair was darker, the style of clothes were a little worn, but all in all she still looked like Magnus. But there was some thing niggling the back of his mind warning him to move away; it was warning him that Magnus was dangerous.

"We should get them inside." Nikola rose and stood over Druitt's waist. Bending down he grabbed the leather lapels of the leather coat so he could at least haul Druitt up and get him inside. "I still get the money I need right?" Nikola asked as he slung John's limp arm over her shoulders.

"So long as you get him inside and figure out why they're unconscious," Will shot back. Lifting Magnus up, wrapping his arm around her waist and putting her limp arm over his shoulders.

"Just checking," Nikola replied and headed for the door with John while Will followed with Magnus.

**INFIRMARY:**

Will and Tesla got Magnus and Druitt into the infirmary and affixed them with monitors. All the read outs were telling them they were fine. Each of them had a faint energy signature around them at least that was according to Tesla. "There's not a lot we can do until they wake up." Will muttered standing next to the bed Magnus was resting on. He couldn't beat back the feeling of wanting to run from her. Why was he feeling this way? It was Magnus, his friend and his boss. She wasn't a threat to him. Yet, the primitive part of his brain was sending warning bells through his entire system.

Nikola used his scientist's gaze to pick out all the differences. John had his black hair back, longer than before, but it was still back. On his left ring finger was a silver band as well as a device on his wrist that looked similar to the vampire shield he had built months ago. Moving his gaze in a sweeping motion Nikola took in John's whole appearance. The Druitt from two days ago had worn a long coat, dress slacks, and a black button up shirt. This Druitt wore a black V-neck t-shirt, leather pants, boots, and a long leather trench coat similar to Helen's. In fact the pair was dressed to match.

Nikola walked away, standing at the foot of the bed gazing at both sleeping figures, "Something is not right here." Stating the obvious was way below him and yet he had just done that.

"Really?" Will shook his head, "You're just now getting that?"

"Respect your elders," Nikola replied. "What I mean is I don't think they are the same people who left here two days ago." Seconds after Nikola had finished that statement Druitt and Magnus groaned in unison.

The last thing John remembered was seeing Helen pass out, fall to the ground. He had wanted to go to her, to help her, but his body did as hers had. John had fallen to the ground with blackness claiming his mind. Now, he was regaining the ability to use his body; feeling was coming back into his extremities. Sitting up John bowed his spine and heard a succession of internal pops and cracks. John blinked seeing young William and the past version of Nikola. Both were looking at him with strange looks on their faces. John knew how he would appear to them, a vestige of his former 19th century self.

Shaking the cobwebs from his mind, John slid off the side of the bed to go to Helen who was lying mere feet from him. His feet were a little unsteady, but he managed to sit down next to her gently. John reached out and cupped her cheek, "Helen, you need to wake. We're back." He whispered mindful of the other two in the room.

Helen shifted, listened to John's voice. She was feeling stronger, more herself. Rising up, going into his arms Helen open her eyes seeing Will and Nikola standing just out of reach. With her eyes on Nikola a deep growl rumbled in her chest. John's left hand rubbed small circles on her back trying in earnest to calm her wild side; the side she had relied on for so many years.

Pulling her eyes from Nikola and Will, Helen looked John in the face, "We really made it back. I mean, we're back." She didn't miss the note of exhilaration in her own voice or the look of triumph in John's. Happiness overwhelmed her to the point she was pulling John into her arms and laughing.

"I didn't think he could get the device powered up enough," John replied, laughter in his voice.

Again Helen pulled back to look at him, "Of course he did. His arrogance wouldn't let him do anything else."

"Uh, not to interrupt, but…" Nikola gestured with his hands, "What are you talking about?" he wasn't entirely sure that they hadn't sustained some head trauma from their falls.

Sighing John muttered, "He's still annoying no matter what year it is." He leaned his forehead to Helen's and breathed her in. Locking his gaze with hers John asked, "Are you well enough to stand?" Standing up, John offered Helen his hand. He knew how much she liked to move around when she spoke. There would be a lot to discuss, and for Helen plenty of moving around.

Helen looked at John's hand, then to his eyes, and back to his hand. Smiling sweetly at him she nudged his hand aside and stood up under her own power. She must have risen to fast; her head swam, but John's arms were around her, holding her close. "Thanks," she muttered placing her hands, palm down, on his broad chest.

"Better?" As he asked John brushed a strand of dark hair out of her face. He knew nothing but happiness when he touched her, was touched by her, that being back 70 years in the past didn't faze him in the slightest.

"Always," Helen took a steadying breath and stepped away from the warmth, from the security John gave her to face to the other two men standing near them. Seeing Will again suffused her being with happiness, with fondness. If all went well Will wouldn't die young. "Hello Will, it's been a long time."

"Long time? Two days is a long time?" Will asked in his usual sarcastic manner.

"It's been 70 years for us." John turned, took his place beside Helen. Without thought he slipped his left hand into her right and laced their fingers. Helen squeezed his hand.

"Did you two happen to hit you head harder than you thought?" Nikola asked motioning between the two of them. He hadn't missed John taking Helen's hand and he had missed her squeezing back. What was going on with them?

"We're telling the truth. It's been 70 years and for most of that time war has broke out between humans and abnormals." Helen lowered her head and chased away the images of death, of pain, and memories of sorrow.

"70 years, that's a long time…." Will ran his hand through his hair. He wasn't sure if something had happened to them on the mission or what, but looking at them Magnus and Druitt thoroughly believed what they were saying.

"We're not crazy." John stated. He knew how this sounded and had John been in the reverse position would react with the same level of skepticism.

"Well, we know she's not…." Nikola trailed off.

Helen would have lunged for Nikola. Just as she moved a fraction of an inch John hauled her back against his chest to calm the raging fury in her. After thirty years she still didn't have a handle on the feral rage she had. Only John's touch seemed to soothe the savage beast she had become inside. "Don't ever imply that John's crazy." Her words dripped with ice and they were directed towards Nikola.

"Sh, sh, sh… Let Nikola say what he wants. He does anyway." John whispered to Helen rubbing his hands up and down her arms. If all went to plan, then her anger would be one of the things that would never happen to her. He felt her still, but anger was still riding her.

"I would leave right now." Helen warned. Her breathing shuddered and her body ached to be free.

"I know when I'm not wanted." Nikola threw up his hands and headed for the door. He barely made out Helen's, 'You should have left sooner' comment. Deep down he was actually stung by her comment. He had done plenty in his life to make her angry, some of them had garnered him bullets to the chest, but for her blatant anger; Nikola didn't understand.

Will watched Tesla leave, then tracked his gaze back to Helen still being held by Druitt. His friend looked ready to hurt the former Vampire. It made no sense. Yes, Tesla was a major pain, flippant, egotistical, arrogant, sarcastic, and intrusive, but Magnus had put up with him for years. What could have changed to make her hate him so much? "What was that about?" he asked. Never in all his time here had he seen Magnus so angry, not even during the short lived war with the Cabal.

"Nikola has forever earned my distain and distrust." Helen seethed, pulled out of John's arms, and paced a furious line in an attempt to control her anger.

Will put space between himself and Magnus, going to Druitt to talk, "I guess something major happened between them." What could Tesla have done to make Magnus so angry at him?

"And you would be right." John kept his eyes on Helen. "For us, Nikola is once again of the _Sanguine__ Vampiris_ race. Helen told me that you once found him in a secret Cabal lab."

"Yeah, he was looking for the Source Blood." Will confirmed, though he knew Magnus must have told Druitt all of it.

"Yes, only what was destroyed in that lab was not all of the Source Blood. In a few years Nikola will hear whispers of the remains of the Source blood. It will take him a few more years to track it down but he will find it, take it from former Cabal, become a Vampire again, and in the process he will sever all tenuous ties he had to Helen." John kept his gaze on Helen as she continued to pace.

"Does that have anything to do with what's wrong with Magnus?" He knew something was wrong with her.

"Nikola's thievery of the blood set wheels in motion for Helen's fate. Be warned young William, the Cabal has not gone from this Earth despite my best efforts." John warned finally going to Helen. Once again he wrapped her in his warm embrace giving her the strength of his body to calm and soothe that savage beast inside of her. It was a beast he knew all to well.

Helen listened to the conversation John was having with Will. Her mind took her back to that day so long ago…

_Helen stood in her study waiting for John's return. She had trusted him, sent him to obtain an abnormal; it was dangerous and the danger to John weighed on her mind. Helen knew he could take care of himself, but the ore he lingered in her Sanctuary the more her concern and caring for him grew. Stepping from behind her desk Helen trekked to the window to watch the sun play on the water. But as she watched the water, someone was watching her. Turning she saw Nikola but something was different. It had been months since he had last darkened her doorstep. "What are you doing here?" Helen asked._

"_Oh, I just dropped by for a chat." Nikola's grin widened. Without thought he let his vampiric nature bleed through contorting his features, making his nails grow into deadly daggers. His voice deeper Nikola spoke, "What do you think?" He flexed his fingers._

"_What have you done?" Helen asked backing away from the window. She was staring at Nikola as a vampire, not the human magnet. Somehow he had gotten a hold of the source blood. Hope had abated her anger years ago at him at the thought that Source Blood was finally gone. But seeing Nikola now, she knew it wasn't so. That made her anger rise again._

"_Oh Helen, don't be so shocked." He stepped over the threshold of the door and put himself in her office. "Think of all the projects we could complete, think of all the discoveries we could make." Nikola spread out his arms._

"_I can't believe you did this?" Disbelief deadened her voice._

_Nikola scoffed, "Oh please, like I was going to let the former Cabal keep the blood. Not when I could use it." He really thought she would see things from his point of view._

"_That blood turned my daughter into a killer." Helen itched to reach for her gun, but that would do little good against Nikola now._

"_Like Father like daughter I guess." Nikola rolled his eyes. He was feeling too good to let Helen spoil his mood. "It's not like Ashley's around…" The minute he started he knew he shouldn't have said anything._

_Helen felt rage boil through her at the callous way Nikola had mentioned Ashley, "Get out. Get out of my Sanctuary and never come back."_

"_Helen…" Nikola reverted, let his human features come back through, "I didn't mean…"_

"_Yes you did. I've put up with your selfish nature, your arrogance, your superiority complex for years, and now I'm done. If being a vampire is so important to you; go and find someone who cares." Helen moved past him and out of her office…_

Suddenly John's arms were around her, calming her, soothing her ravaged soul. "I hate remembering that day." Helen sighed and leaned her head back to touch his shoulder. "It's all going to happen again. Nikola will go for the blood…"

"But they will not come for you." John assured her. By all the powers of Heaven and Hell he would ensure that nothing harmed her ever again.

Helen rounded on him, "How can you be so sure." Since the resurrected cabal had taken her she hadn't been sure of anything; except for John. He had been the one to come for her, been the one to save her. Only he wasn't in time to reverse what had already been done to her.

"Because, I am forever your shadow," John smiled that easy smile at her. He knew that it would put her at ease. There was no power on this Earth that would stop John from protecting Helen in whatever way he could. She was his life, his lover, and by the grace of Fate, she was his wife.

Will leaned against the wall and watched Druitt with Magnus. It should rock his world that they claimed to be 70 years in the future, and yet, it didn't. He worked in a place that catered to abnormals, that helped them, studied them, and protected them from the eyes of the humans. Why should head be doing a complete 180? Only, it was. Will watched John wrap his arms gently are Helen and she didn't push him away. Rather, she pulled his arms tighter around her. Will's day could not get any weirder than it already had.


	2. Chapter 2

Summary: John and Helen come back to stop the first stages of a war that could break out between humans and Abnormals. **A/U**

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Sanctuary

Rating: T+

Pairing: Helen and John.

**PREVENTION:**

**LATER THAT NIGHT:**

Helen stood up on the north tower surveying the city. It looked so different than what she was accustomed to. In her time the city would be lit up with flashes of bombs exploding, the sounds of gun fire ringing out. Now the night seemed so calm, so serene that Helen didn't know what to do with the silence. This was all so strange, so unnatural considering what she was used to. While she was thinking, watching, listening Helen twisted the ring on her finger. It was a plain silver band with the word Eternity inscribed on the inside. John was the only haven she had to turn to when everything started to fall apart. First it was the Cabal taking Ashley and she spent nearly all of her six week search with the father of her daughter letting her anger consume her. John was the only one she could really count on.

"What are you thinking about?" John had been watching her for the better part of an hour just watching the city beyond. The silence irked him. It was funny how he had gotten used to going to sleep with the sound of gun fire. Odd how ones mind could adapt.

"I'm letting all the bad come to the surface. I just don't know how to react to this quiet." Helen turned from the serene sight of the city to face her husband. Still, after all these years, just referring to him as her husband had a way of causing her heart to flutter in happiness.

"Oh, well I have a remedy for that," John whispered. He knew how she could be when she traversed the dark recesses of her mind. He needed to pull her back from the ledge, pull her back from the self loathing and hatred he could see in her eyes.

"You do. Well, then Mr. Druitt, please enlighten me as to this remedy of yours." Helen smiled through the darkness of her mind.

"As you will Mrs. Druitt." John never tired of calling her by that. It thrilled him to no end that she took his last name. "It starts like this," Stepping closer to her he placed his hands on her waist, "And then continues like this," Leaning down John took her lips in a gentle kiss that had her moaning into his mouth. He drank it down like the finest wine the Earth had ever produced. Her arms came up and draped over his shoulders. This was all he could do to combat the darkness brewing in his wife's mind and in her heart.

With great effort Helen took her lips from his. She licked her lower lip drawing in the taste of him before saying, "That is exactly what I needed." Helen cupped the side of his face with her left hand marveling at the light that played on the silver of her ring. The rings had been John's doing as well as the inscriptions. "I love you so much."

John felt his heart clench. When she said that to him, his whole world ceased to be except for her. Helen was his world, the only thing he knew, all he ever wanted to know. "You're my eternity." John replied. He pulled her close and let his body warm to hers. He didn't know when someone would come, interrupt them sparking Helen's easy temper.

"I'm glad we came back." She said, her voice slightly muffled against his chest.

"So am I." John agreed. Then again he usually did what Helen wanted anyway. In the end it was all Helen's choice; John was her partner, her fighter. He did as she commanded. Pulling back John locked his eyes with hers, "Where should we sleep tonight?"

Helen had started out thinking the same thing and then her mind pulled her down to all the sins of her past. She never decided. "The night is warm, the wind is gentle, and the only sound to be heard is the lament of crickets. I want sleep under the stars." Helen answered. Back set off from the main house was a tent permanently staked in the summer time with a bed and a view of the water that was beautiful whether it was night or day.

John smirked once again wrapping his arms around Helen's waist. "Then that is what we shall do." Using his powers John took them to the section of the grounds he knew all too well. There in the center was a white tent billowing in the light breeze. It was an open air summer tent with free hanging white gossamer curtains mixed with velvet black ropes to separate them. In the center he could see a large bed done in reds and gold's. John felt his heart speed up just at the sight. It amazed him that that could still happen.

Helen moved out of John's arms, took his left hand in her right, and brought it up to her lips to kiss his wedding band; the symbol of their union through this life and into eternity. She smiled lightly when she felt John's index finger running up and down her cheek bone. This was the life she was meant to have, the life with John Druitt, and she loved it. She angled her head and took his lips again as she pushed his coat off of his broad shoulders and down to the floor.

Slowly, so slowly they walked back taking each others clothes off in turn until they could slip beneath the covers to be joined in the only way a man and woman could be while the wind whispered and the crickets sang. The night was their cover, their blanket as they made love. In this union they molded their bodies together feeling that one moment of shear pleasure that was so strong it had the power to make their minds go blank and take away the pain for a little while.

From the one of the many windows in Helen's Sanctuary Nikola watched the tent with interest. It was dark inside and so he couldn't see much except the occasional flash of pale skin. It made him sick to think that Helen chose John over him. The big brute was a notorious killer, never been caught, still a cold blooded killer. And yet Helen seemed oblivious to his faults. That was what really irritated him the most about John. He wasn't as brilliant as Nikola and still Helen chose him. What made Helen want John so much?

If he stayed at the window much longer he might lose what was left of his sanity just thinking about them having sex in the darkness of the tent. To console himself Nikola walked away, went down to her wine cellar and picked out a very rare, very expensive wine to drown his sorrows. Nikola knew that after half the bottle was gone he would be back to that same window searching for a glimpse of the woman who drove him mad day and night.

A few hours later the sound of water brought Helen out of her light dozing. She felt her body all loose and limber with sated hunger. Stretching Helen pulled one of the gold sheets around her body rolling out of bed slowly as to not wake John. He was still sleeping and she didn't want to wake him up. Helen walked over the grass and leaned against the tent pole scanning the night for what had woken her despite the sound of the water. Something or someone was watching them and she knew who it had to be; Nikola Tesla. Letting her new eyes come foreword Helen scanned the night and saw his silhouette outlined in one of the numerous windows that lined her home. She wanted to be sick, to go up there and beat him bloody, but she wouldn't leave John's side.

John felt her leave his side; felt the bed shift and one of the sheets lift off the bed. He sat up and watched her watching the night, scanning for dangers to their tranquility. Getting out of bed John pulled on his worn, scuffed leather pants leaving the top button undone. He went up behind her to look out at the night just as she was, but he saw nothing except the glow of her inhuman amber eyes. "What is it?" John asked.

"Someone's watching us." Helen answered turning to look at John. With her eyes like this she could see every detail of the night in an amber hue, as well as John. She could hear his heart still racing from her ravenous hunger that he had so gladly sated. His skin still glistened with sweat and sported her teeth marks and scratches, just as her skin bore his marks. Helen looked away, adverted her gaze. She hated for John to see her eyes when they glowed.

John hated when she turned from him. Cupping her face he brought her eyes back to his. "I love your eyes," Whispering he kissed her forehead wrapping his arms around her. No matter what she was or what she became John would love her no matter what. They were destined to be, Fate deemed them to be the only comfort for the other. If John could give her solace, give her reassurance about whom and what she was now, he would give it freely.

"How can you when I hate the sight of them so much?" Helen asked. She hated what she had become and it was because of the resurrected Cabal. They wanted to experiment on a human who had been Source altered and the only one they had been able to ensnare was Helen herself because she walked blindly into a trap.

"I love them because they're apart of you now." John answered. She had been battling self loathing for years and all John could do was help, reassure her, and soothe her when she got wild. These days John was the only one who could calm her down. Rather than dwell on this further John urged, "It will be daylight soon enough, come to bed, sleep, and put these worries out of you mind until it comes time to speak of them to the others."

Helen closed her eyes letting her feral side calm and then opened eyes to the darkness. "You have such a talented tongue when you want to use it." She joked, "But I concede. I know I need sleep and later today will be soon enough to revisit the atrocities that have happened to us." Leaving John she went to the bed and reclined. Only, her mind would not stop; it would not still.

John looked up at the window Helen had shown him and he had no doubt that Nikola was there watching even though there was little he could see. The night was as black as pitch, no stars or moon aided his sight, but he had no doubt that Tesla was there. It reminded him of their early days at Oxford when he and Helen would be off alone and yet, Nikola would be there watching; always watching. They seemed so long ago in his mind, and yet, they also seemed like yesterday as well.

In the early days John would sneak off with Helen and in a fit of passion they would ravish each others mouths thinking that no one would know, no one would see. Her fingers would tangle in hair keeping him close while is arms wrapped around her waist holding him to her. Even if he lived a thousand years his body would never lose its hunger for her, its desire. She was fire, she was passion, and together they burned brighter than the sun. A gentle whisper pulled him from his revelry, "John. Come back to bed." Turning from the sight of the night, he did as his wife wished. Lying down next to her, John pulled her into his arms and relaxed into sleep.

**MORNING:**

**HELEN'S OFFICE**

The team was assembled in the boss's office waiting, just waiting. So far Magnus and Druitt had been seen inside the walls of the Sanctuary. Nikola was standing by the window looking out at the city. Henry sat on the couch with Kate to his left and her feet were tucked up under her as they waited. Will leaned against the desk, while the Big Guy stood beside it. They were never good at waiting.

Helen stood at the top of the landing. She knew who waited for her in the office; Will, Kate, Henry, and her trusted friend would be waiting. The Feeling to run in there to see them once again overwhelmed her that she came to a halt. John came to her, took her hand, and smiled. He just smiled at her and Helen felt better. How had been the one to be the calm one? How had become so rational? It didn't matter to Helen. She knew the reason for his sanity and cherished every moment of it. Out habit her thumb went to play with her wedding band and found only skin. "Oh no," She groaned turning to head back to the stairs.

John knew what was wrong. He wrapped his arms around her pulling her back, "Here." He pulled out her small silver wedding band. "You'll feel more like yourself with this on." John said slipping it on her finger. She shuddered in his arms. He kissed her temple and waited.

"Thanks, I knew I was forgetting something this morning." Helen took a breath, trying to think of what she was going to say first tot hem, to all of them.

"Don't worry. They won't think you're crazy. I'm insane one remember?" John tried to joke, but his words fell on deaf ears.

"I don't want to do this. I can't face them, any of them," Helen said backing away heading for the stairs again. John wouldn't let her go. He kept his arms around her waist. Her resolve to come back, to change things faltered just knowing that the others were just beyond waiting in her office.

"Then what are you going to do? Stay in bed and sleep?" John asked. He wasn't going to let her falter now. Helen was determined to do this, determined to change their future. John knew the risk. If they changed too much then the future would be altered where he and Helen would never be married. Even with that risk, the risk of losing all he held dear, John would not let her falter.

"For starters," Helen sighed and turned in his embrace. "I can't face them." She repeated.

"You faced Will last night. How are the others any different?" John asked.

"I don't know," Helen looked John in the eyes. She didn't know where her apprehension came from. The people waiting for her were friends. '_Friends that I got killed,_' That was it; that was her all consuming guilt. She had gotten them killed and it ate at her.

John unwrapped his arms from around her waist and took her hand. "Come on, I'll be there with you with my hand in yours."

With John's hand firmly in hers Helen felt better. It amazed her how that had happened. Once, along time ago for them, he was the one person who destroyed her, and now he was the one person who had the power to give her peace. Just his touch brought her back to when he had saved her.

_Helen had been tossed into a cell hours before without much of a fight. Whatever those scientists had injected her with made her body as limp as a wet noodle. She couldn't move, could barely breathe; she could barely think. Something was happening to her, something she couldn't stop. The cell was dark and all she could hear were the distant voices of the people who had captured her. Helen had thought she was going to the aide of a group of abnormals. Instead she had walked into a trap, was sedated, and then brought to another location._

_Hours passed, or what she thought were hours; it could have been mere minutes or even seconds, and then her body came alive. Every nerve felt like it was on fire, needles broke out along her skin. She knew this feeling; Source blood. Anger washed over her, put some of the pain out of her mind. They dared to use Source Blood on her…_

"Helen?" John knew what she was remembering. Every time he saw that faraway look in her eyes John was taken back to the dark, dank cell he had found her in. For them it was just fifty years ago. That time seemed so short compared to the life they had been living. Apart they were a force to be reckoned with, but together the world would tremble if they ever set their sights on taking down governments.

"I'm sorry, my mind was…" she made a gesture in the air.

John leaned foreword placing a gentle kiss to her temple, "I know." He muttered.

"Oh, how I wish I could be the woman they know." Together she and John took those last steps to her office.

Kate was the first one to see them and she was floored, just plain stunned at what she saw. The Doc and Druitt were nearly dressed to match. It was really eerie to see them so close, holding hands, and looking like mirror images. Will had explained some of what he knew, which wasn't much, but it put a few things into perspective. "Doc, wow, good look for you," Kate flicked her gaze to their joined hands. "Really good look." Kate smiled

Henry got up, his senses kicking into overdrive at seeing the doc. She looked like Magnus, and yet something was different about her. It was odd to see her hand clasped in Druitt's, but even that wasn't what had him wary of her now. There was something about her now, something dangerous. "Gone for two days and 70 years happens."

Big guy saw all the changes in his friend, noted the subtle change in her scent to encompass that of Druitt as well. They were united in a way that he had never seen from them before. Something about the way they looked, the way they stood, even down to their clasped hands seemed right. He was still going to reserve judgment where Druitt was concerned, but for her, he saw his trusted friend, the woman who saved him and gave him a home.

Helen tightened her grip on John's hand feeling the tension level rise about ten degrees after the entered. Kate seemed unfazed by them, Henry was wary, and her trusted friend and former man servant didn't say anything. Though, he rarely did. Nikola was staying blessedly silent for the moment, and Will was doing the same. "I know what Will has told you may seem like something out of H.G Wells, but I assure you it's very real for us. We lived those 70 years." Helen took her hand out of John's, taking the next step into the room. He wouldn't let her get too far from him. John stepped up by her side and a little behind her like the body guard he pretended to be for her to the outside world, outside the Sanctuary. "I could say that I'm doing this out a sense of duty and honor to my fellow Abnormals, but its pure desperation to avert a war that will plunge this world into anarchy."

"Out of the ashes of the defeated Cabal will rise a new threat. They've already been working against you. We came to try and stop the beginnings of the war." John spoke calmly even though he sounded like a cheap two dollar psychic.

"And why should we believe you Johnny?" Tesla stepped away from the window.

"This coming from the man who has a hidden agenda for everything that he does." John snapped, "My track record compared to yours is just a little bit better."

"Just stop!" Will shouted pushing away from the desk, shooting Nikola a hostile glance to shut up. "This isn't helping and it won't help what they came back to do."

"We used a device the vampires created to come back and effect the flow of time, to change the course of events." Helen said slipping her hands into the pockets of her coat.

"What gives you the right to change anything?" Nikola countered.

"A global war is bad for everyone, including a pig headed, stubborn, former vampire who hasn't got one ounce of common sense or common decency." Helen sniped. It was amazing how she ever called this man her friend.

"Gee Helen; tell me how you really feel." He splayed his fingers over his chest feigning hurt.

"I hate you. You're a self centered obnoxious pain in the ass." Before she could stop it, that dangerous part of her came foreword. Instantly she saw her world in an amber glow and then John was there with his hands on her shoulders squeezing gently. One would think that after forty years she would have a better handle on her anger. Nikola always inspired the anger just by being near her.

"Uh doc…. Not stop the Tesla bashing but… what happened to your eyes?" Kate asked stepping closer to Magnus. The eerie amber over laid the blue of her normal color with a slit up the center reminding her of cat's eye.

"That would be one of the things I came back to change. Hopefully affecting the current events it will alter my future so I'm still some semblance of the human I was." Helen went to her desk and looked at the wall just behind Ashley's picture. She had grown so used to the blood stain that it shocked her not to see it anymore. "I don't know where to start in my story." She breathed in deeply and sorted through all of her memories deciding on the best place to start.


	3. Chapter 3

Summary: John and Helen come back to stop the first stages of a war that could break out between humans and Abnormals. **A/U**

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Sanctuary

Rating: T+

Pairing: Helen and John.

**PREVENTION:**

**HELEN'S OFFICE:**

John stood watching Helen as she reached out and traced the blood stain that wasn't there yet. That had been one day of many where his heart had stopped for fear of losing her. Going to her he took her hand and gently pulled her away from the stain that they only knew was there. "Maybe you should start talking." John suggested. He hadn't realized that he had changed languages. Helen and John had labored for three years to learn a dead dialect of Thai that they could use and mold just for them and he was using it now as another way to soothe her.

"Start where?" Helen replied in Thai. "Start with Nikola sparking the war, or start where I was trapped, taken by the scientists of the Cabal, or should I start where I was turned into a monster." Helen closed her eyes and pictured her office as she had last seen it.

Henry looked at Nikola asking, "Do you understand them?" One minute the Doc and Druitt were speaking English and the next they had switched languages. His head was reeling enough from the fact that they had come back in time.

"Not a word, though I did catch my name." Nikola answered watching Helen and John whisper to each other in another language.

"Yeah, I don't think that's a good thing." Henry shot back. On a good day Tesla could be tolerable and Henry felt something akin to like for the former vampire.

John sighed, "Just tell them how it all starts." She needed to start somewhere. This was her idea.

"No, I will not give Nikola a chance to spark the war right now, not when I don't have you fully with me." Helen resisted the urge to cup John's face. She wanted to touch him, to take comfort in his strength, only she couldn't. Not right now, not in front of the others. He was the reason she could go on, could make the changes she needed to make.

"Then tell them who dies first." John said, his words were back in English, and in a harsher tone than he had meant. He saw the hurt in her eyes, wanted to soothe it away, but he had to push her to talk. Giving her team the knowledge of future evens would hopefully help to arm them and keep them safe.

"Which one of us dies?" Will asked stepping closer. His face going serious as his attention locked on Druitt and Magnus. There was a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that he knew who would be the first causality.

Helen knew what John was doing and it was working; he always knew the buttons to push on her. She turned to Will and said, "You die first."

"Ok, when?" He died once already, what was another. At least this time Will would know the date of his death and be prepared for it.

"Will?" Kate exclaimed hitting the back of her hand across his arm.

"You die eight years from now trying to help a group of Abnormals find the Sanctuary." Helen replied in English. His death, for her, had been 62 years ago and yet it still felt like yesterday. The knife in her heart twisted reminding her that it was her fault, it was her that sent Will in but he never came out. Helen looked to Kate, "And then you're next. You track down the people who kill Will and you kill them, but the last one was ready for you. You manage to kill him and he gets one last shot off that was lucky." She looked to Henry, "Their deaths cause you to leave. Henry you go back England and run with the other wolves. But that doesn't last long either." Helen closed her eyes against the tears she could feel welling up. She wouldn't shed them, her friends, her team were not dead and yet at the same time they were.

"How did this all start?" the Big Guy asked joining the conversation. He had been waiting, been judging how this Helen differed from the friend he had seen two days ago when she had left in the company of Druitt.

"Yes, do tell. Whose arrogant blood thirsty ways sparks this war?" Nikola tracked his gaze over to Druitt and felt the urge to gag at the way Johnny looked. Two days he had seen Helen leave with John. She had actually chosen Druitt over him and it aggravated him. This Druitt was just a bad memory. One that Nikola had no desire to relive.

Helen had started to answer, her words would have dripped in venom, but it was John who spoke. "It was you Nikola. Your insufferable arrogance and your God complex exposes us all." Helen would have preferred John use a little more anger in his words, but the dark tine was enough for her. "You're the reason that William, Kate, and Henry lie cold and dead in their graves."

With that last sentence the tension level rose by a factor of ten. Everyone fell silent, looked out the window, or stared down at the floor. The only two to hold eye contact were Nikola and John. No one dared move for fear these two titans would come to blows.

Helen slipped her hand into John's offering him her strength should he chose to fight the former vampire. As much as beating Tesla might appeal to her they still had other tasks to complete. "Not here John, he's not worth it." Helen whispered in their adopted language.

Keeping his gaze on Tesla, John replied in Thai. "I know, though it would make you feel better to see him bleed." He glanced at her to catch a ghost of a smile from her. Just that smile alone had him standing down, pulling back his rage and anger to once again be the source of her sanity and comfort. John took his hand from hers, slipped it around her waist, and then bowed his head to the others. "If you'll excuse us, we still have a few more things to take care of." Then he called on his powers bring him and Helen to an abandoned building in Old City.

"Would you really have fought him in my office?" Helen asked moving away from John.

"Yes, only if he started it." John raised his eyebrow. "Why do you ask?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's seeing him like that, all fragile and human…" Helen started to say.

"Helen, Nikola was never human… even when he was human." He came to her, pulled her close, "We have a few things to fix before your friends come looking for us."

She sighed and let John ease her troubles for a moment. "I know."

**BACK AT THE SANCTUARY:**

"Well, that was odd…." Kate muttered looking at the big guy, then at Henry.

"Yeah, though it makes you wonder what they have to take care of." Will said looking around at everyone. This definitely wasn't the weirdest morning any of them have had, but what worried him was when Druitt came back; would he search out Tesla?

"Not really interested," Nikola snapped and headed out of the office and back to his temporary work space.

**ABANDONED BUILDING:**

Helen moved away from John looking around the building. This was the same building where Adam Worth had trapped her, poisoned her, and she had nearly killed him again. There was something hidden that the others had forgotten about. Walking down the halls she forced away the images, the feelings of being trapped here. She hated this place. John followed her like the faithful shadow he was. Helen felt better just knowing that he was with her. Taking each corridor Helen searched the small crevices until she found what she was looking for. It was small, offline and out of the way. This small device managed to avoid being destroyed. "John, give me a leg up."

"Alright," John moved to her and braced his side against the wall giving her the added height she would need to reach what was in the crevice. As she used his leg as a step John reached out to steady her putting his hands on her waist.

Helen reached in and grasped the small metal device. "Got it," John slid is arms around her waist and brought her back down against him. Only, his eyes were on the device.

"What is this?" John took the device from Helen looking it over. "Is it a power source?"

"Yes, Adam told me about it before Hyde took over. I don't know how it will help but give it to Nikola and he will be distracted long enough for us to track down the blood, steal it, and hide it away from the world." Helen remembered the face off with Adam in Hollow Earth. John had been handling the pale minions that Worth controlled while she had been left to deal with him. Adam had bought her enough time to get close and kill Hyde once and for all. She had already killed him once; this time it was just for good.

"I know what that cost you." He whispered. John knew his wife, knew she didn't want to kill but she would if her hand was forced. He was plain proof of that. Only Helen had brought him back from the brink of death many times.

Helen shrugged, "He was a loose end." She could say that until she was blue in the face, but the truth of it was she felt immense shame in knowing she had to kill Adam again. Once had been enough for her and even then that had gone awry.

"That may work on the others but not on me," John cupped her cheek and tilted her head back. "I know you. Killing him took a small piece of your soul." Helen wasn't the typical woman. She had seen and done things that no woman of her time would have ever comprehended, and it baffled John as to how she kept her sanity.

"I know I can never fool you." She smiled lightly, "But I can still try." Laughing she took the device from his hands, heading to the exit.

"Yes, you could, but why would you want to?" He walked with her watching the wry smile form on her lips.

"Law of averages. Eventually I will be able to fool you." She laughed again and this time smiled a warm genuine smile. The dark cloud over her head had dissipated now that they were well on their way to leaving.

**AT THE SANCTUARY:**

**NIKOLA'S LAB**

Helen walked into the lab where Nikola was muttering and cursing in Serbian. She stifled the need to snarl at him, reminding herself why she was here. The power cell behind her back was meant to distract Nikola while she and John went for the remainder of the source blood to steal it and hide it away from the world. "Can't get one of your new toys to work?"

"What do you want?" He snarled not even bothering to look at her.

"I have a gift for you?" Helen answered sweetly.

"What? More cunningly disguised insults or blatant words of hate?" This time he turned and became instantly wary of the smile on her face. It was a smile he didn't trust.

"No threats, no insults, no accusations. Just a gift," She pulled her hands out form behind her back and offered him the power cell. Instantly his eyes lit up like a maniacal genius at Christmas. "See, I told you," Helen walked closer and put the power cell in his hands.

"What does it do?" He asked and felt stupid for asking.

"You're the genius, figure it out." Helen replied.

"Oh, very funny," Nikola answered back looking over the power cell. It had the same seamless construction as all the other junk Henry had brought back. "This is from Hollow Earth."

"There you go, now you have a place to start. Have fun." Walking out Helen went to find John and let him know that Nikola was adequately distracted. She moved at a brisk pace all the way to her office where she saw John leaning over her computers going through information. He had removed his jacket and tied his hair back. From the angle she was looking at him, it made her want to purr in delight.

"Do you plan to keep staring at me?" John asked without bothering to look up and see Helen there. He knew she was.

"That's my current plan yes," Her voice was happy as her eyes roved over his leather clad backside. "And I will keep staring because you look so good in leather."

John stood up straight and turned to her. "Then I should at least marvel at you in the same lascivious manner."

Helen scoffed playfully, "Does my staring offend you?"

John raised his brow, "No, not at all." He pulled the tie from his hair, "But back to business." Yes, he was putting a damper on the mood, but they were here for a reason. Reaching out to her he offered his hand to her. Helen took it and John pulled her into his arms with her back to his chest so she could see what he found. "I found three possible locations."

"Three?" Helen angled her head to look at him fro a second and then back down to the monitors. "Why three?"

"Our Nikola," John nearly choked on those words, "All he said in reference to its location is that it was a place we had been before." John brought up all three locations on three of the monitors. "Of all the places I've been to, Nikola and I were only at these three locations."

Angling her head, Helen kissed the underside of his chin. "Good work." Helen turned around, "We can't let the others know about this."

John leaned into her but reached out to delete the information from the computers triggering a virus to eat any reference material to the Source Blood, "And now the information is in our heads and not lying around on the system."

"You know Nikola…" Helen started to say.

"Yes and that's why I uploaded a virus to delete and corrupt information dealing with the Source blood." John smiled smugly.

"You clever man, but who created the virus for you?" John could work computers but he was more of a fighter.

"It was something Henry left behind and I toyed with it for months while you were doing research on the vampire device." John answered.

"Again I say, clever man," Helen smiled. Since getting his energy elemental under control John had been able to devote his mind to others endeavors than killing people. Most nights she had found him in her library with several books spread out on the table. When he had come back to bed she had teased him.

"_You're __having an affair__ aren't you?" Helen crossed her arms sitting in the center of their bed._

"_An affair? How can you ask me that?" John looked offended._

"_You're having an affair with my library." She smiled, teasing him lightly_

_John's eyes turned devilish and playful, "Oh yes, your books are cheap harlots and they draw me with their leather spines and gilded pages." John crawled onto the bed, moving to her with a sinister look on his face._

"_I knew it." Helen could barely keep from laughing. _After that they had laughed well into the morning between playful kisses and teasing caresses.

"I am a genius you know." John smirked, feeling Helen take a deep breath. He loved the effect he had on her, over her.

"I know you are and I love it." She kissed him gently taking time to savor him. Helen had had along life, but thing had made her more content than the feel of John holding her. Eternity was not so terrible with John by her side.

John took this moment to truly kiss her, full of passion a desire. He needed to feel her close to him; he always wanted her close. Running his hands down her side, towards the backs of her thighs John picked her up and walked with her to set her on the edge of her desk. It was something they had done before, but then the Sanctuary had been quiet with only the concussion of distant bombs to fill the night as they filled each other with pleasure.

"John…." She kissed him again with ardent passion, "We can't…" Helen pulled his lips back to hers. "This is mad. The others are…." He was leaning into her again, kissing her harder, faster with a fevered hurry.

"The others are far away." He said between kisses. "We need this." John wanted the feel of her lips, the feel of her legs wrapped around his waist. This was the passion they had shared over two hundred years ago, it started their dance; a dance that would continue for a long time to come.

Helen threaded her fingers through his hair, holding on through the tempest of passion. No matter what the time was Helen never got over how earth shattering their desire was; it shook the very foundations of their souls, swelled their hearts, and made them stronger together. Her life was how she wanted it, with John.


	4. Chapter 4

Summary: John and Helen come back to stop the first stages of a war that could break out between humans and Abnormals. **A/U**

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Sanctuary

Rating: T+

Pairing: Helen and John.

**PREVENTION:**

Night fell over the Sanctuary with Helen and John preparing to sneak into one of the former Cabal labs. Earlier that day they had scouted the building, watching for any signs of activity in and around the former research facility. From their vantage point they had seen nothing, but that didn't mean there wasn't activity happening inside the building. Now they were preparing to go back and take a more detailed look inside. Helen loaded and then holstered her 9mm before pulling on leather gloves. John, as usual, had knives stashed on him. She had never found them all in one search before. "Ready to go?" She asked buttoning one of the buttons on her leather coat.

"As always," John smiled darkly taking her hand. He was eager for this to be over so they could go home to their time; at least he still hoped to have Helen to go home to in their time. John didn't want to let her go, and yet at the same time he could not deny her this chance to avert a world war. Using his power he teleported them to just outside the main entrance.

Helen shook her head clearing away the slight dizziness she always got when John teleported them. Looking at the door Helen smiled at the key card reader. She pulled out her gun, affixed the silencer, and then shot the lock. "Think they know we're here?" Smiling Helen went through the door.

"If they didn't know before, they certainly know now." John arched his left eyebrow following his wife through the door and into one of the former Cabal labs. Would they actually find scientists hard at work in labs or would they find empty spaces that had once been used?

"Where's your sense of adventure?" She laughed lightly keeping her gun trained on the empty hall way. Helen had a feeling that there was nothing here, but her determination kept her moving foreword, hoping to find something that they would use. She just hoped that she could stay calm long enough to conduct a thorough search

"With you," John replied keeping his eyes trained on her. She had been filled with pure rage these last few years, a rage that he had barely been able to quiet. John had managed to avert the worst of her anger and he had the scars to prove it.

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Helen glanced at him just she rounded another corner. So far they hadn't run into another human being. Good for them, but that also meant there would be no Source Blood here. "There's nothing here."

"Let's wait until we actually find a lab before we make that call." John pulled Helen to a stop. "The other two labs are not going to vanish. We should take our time and search carefully."

Helen let her head fall foreword as she sighed, "I know and you're right. I guess I'm just…"

"Impatient?" John supplied with a smile.

"Yes," she answered with a light smile. Helen gazed at him trying to calm the raging animal that now festered in her blood, in her soul. Lately she acted more animal than human and John was the only one who could reach the person she had been. "I'm ready to not be an animal anymore. Finding this blood is the key my redemption." She listened for movement before speaking again. "I guess, now I know what it was like for you all those years. This anger is eating me alive."

John reached out to her cupping her cheek, "The only solace I had was you. Helen, you're all I ever wanted." There had been so much in his life that he had worked so hard to make right. Helen had been the only reason he had sought such redemption. He was tired of being a monster in her eyes, being a killer, being Jack the Ripper.

Pulling back Helen sighed and shook her head. "I want to get this over with. Being here is not good for my mood." She hated labs, she hated the Cabal, and she hated everything that threatened the stability of her network.

Two hours of searching yielded nothing. Helen had wanted to scream by the time they had finished poking around. It wasn't all bad though. They had found reference material as to where the blood had been moved to or was going to be moved to. John took Helen's hand teleporting them back to the Sanctuary. He knew the longer she stayed there the more volatile she was likely to become and he was eager to avoid her explosion of anger should Tesla happen upon them. John knew that the former vampire would be her first target for venting her foul mood. He was not into the particular frame of mind to watch her beat Tesla to a bloody pulp. It would have been amusing, but the blood was murder to clean up.

Immediately coming back to the Sanctuary Helen went back to her office to get surveillance photos of the other two locations where the blood could be. John was close to her but she couldn't think about that now. All she needed to do was get the blood so she could hide it away and keep Tesla from getting his hands on it.

"John we have a limited time here. I want to get this over with." Helen said looking over the photos. It wasn't stopping Nikola from becoming a vampire again; it wasn't the war she wanted to stop, Helen wanted more than anything to stop the mutilation of her own body by scientists. It was selfish but she couldn't take the anger and she couldn't keep taking her rage out on John. They had once been two beings very much in love, now their love came tainted with violence. Deep down it was violence she loved to inflict on him. John took the pain, even dealt out some of his own to her in return, but this was no way for them to live. Helen wanted to go back to who she was, not some animal walking around in human skin.

"Helen, slow down, we have time." John reasoned wrapping his arms around her again stilling her movements. The first location hadn't panned out; at least they still had two other locations to try.

"This is…" Helen shook her head. "I can't be like this." She motioned to her body knowing that he couldn't see what she meant. Helen didn't feel right in her own skin.

"I know." It was all John could say. He knew how she was feeling, how much he wanted to be rid of the creature in his own body.

"How can you know!" Helen shouted. "You have some semblance of control. I never know when…." She ran her hands through her hair turning away from John. He was the only one who understood her, understood what she was going through, and here she was attacking him. "I'm sorry." Whispering Helen looked at him again and saw only compassion in his eyes. "I shouldn't be…"

John held up his hand motioning for her to be silent. "I know you're frustrated, you're angry. I've known that for fifty years." He sighed running his right hand through his hair just as she had done. If he had the power to take away her anger, take away what had been done to her than he would in a heart beat.

"I'm sorry I'm being difficult," Helen whispered setting aside the photos.

"That's ok, I like when you're difficult," John joked lightly going to her. She needed to be held, but more than that, he wanted to hold her. He needed to feel her in his arms.

Helen melted against John, allowing his warmth to fill her. "I just feel guilty being around them again. We survived, but their dead to us. I can scream at Nikola until I am blue in the face, but I sent them in there…" Turning in John's arms Helen let her past grief surface for an instant, "I'm the reason their dead."

"They knew what they were getting into when they walked through that door. Will knew what could happen when you sent him to that group of abnormals. They all knew." John assured her because it was what she needed more than anything. She needed some small measure of hope about the future they were about to change.

"That doesn't stop the guilt," Helen muttered wrapping her arms around John's waist pillowing her head on his chest.

"No, but you move on. This is why we're here, why you wanted to come back." He kissed the top of her head giving her what she needed. "Now, can I talk you into eating?"

"Perhaps, if you cook," Helen bit her bottom lip gently. She had to stop thinking about all the guilt and focus on the here ad now that she had with him. But his offer of dinner sounded wonderful to her tired body. John was her secret chef in the kitchen. One night she had caught him in the kitchen with various books open and all the burners on her stove going. Everything he had been making smelled so delicious. She had made it a rule that if he mentioned eating then he would be the one to cook. Immortals had too many hours in the day to fill.

"Will that dull the guilt running through you?" John asked trying not to smile at her, but that was difficult.

"Yes, for a few hours at least," She responded with the beginnings of laughter bubbling in her chest.

John put his hands on her shoulders, turning to face the door before he gently urged her to start walking. "Come on. I'll fix anything you want."

**IN THE KITCHEN:**

Helen leaned against the center island watching John move about the kitchen gathering ingredients that he would turn into some tasty treat for her to eat. "What are you going to fix?"

"I haven't decided yet. What sounds good to you?" John asked keeping his attention on the various foods he had gathered together.

'_I want you,'_ She thought while watching the muscles move beneath his shirt as he reached for herbs and spices. "Hmm… what was that thing you did with the chicken?"

"Be more specific?" John asked turning to her. He had a small idea of what she was talking about. Rather than wait for her to answer John turned back to the stove and set about making her something to eat.

**HELEN'S OFFICE:**

Nikola had been eves dropping on the conversation Helen and John were having. It had been near mind numbing listening to them talk to one another in soft tones. Nikola had been ready to vomit when they started to head towards the door. If he wasn't fast enough they would spot him and then he would be in for another round of insults. That was not on his list of things he wanted to happen today. Slipping around the corner he waited for them to pass before he went snooping around. For most of the day, they had been locked into the office doing god knows what and then all of a sudden they up and leave. For his part he had been toying with the piece of tech Helen had brought him. Instantly he knew it was meant to distract him and it ad worked. Nikola hadn't come out of the lab for the rest of the day running test after test on that device.

The only reason he came out had been to try and ask Helen where she had gotten it. Then he had heard something to make his heart race a million miles an hour. They had been talking about the Source Blood. It was the one major button that could be pushed to turn Helen angry, near violent. He had learned that in the Andes when he had found that secret Cabal lab where they had been testing the source blood. He actually thought that she was going to shoot him.

Slipping into her office Nikola went to the desk and poured over the photos that were there. Riffling through the rest of the papers he found nothing, just the photos. There were no coordinates, no descriptions. There was nothing. Hacking into the computer he found traces of a virus that had run its course. The only date the virus had eaten had referenced the Source blood, but other than that he couldn't retrieve more information. If he was really determined then he would copy the hard drive and spend arduous hours slumped over another computer reconstructing the data. Or he could be back in the lab playing with his new toy.

**KITCHEN:**

John pulled down two plates while Helen had gone to get a bottle of wine. Hopefully it would be the bottle he had given her their first year after the blood had changed them. That had been a very rare vintage. John could only hope Tesla hadn't happened upon it and consumed the entire bottle.

"You'll never guess what I found." Helen said coming back into the kitchen. She had been pouring over the wine racks looking for the right type to go with dinner and then she had fund that very first bottle john had given her. It was vintage 1828 Chardonnay

"I'm hoping it's that bottle of wine I gave you. That would go very well with tonight's dinner." John carried the two plates out of the kitchen while Helen grabbed two wine glasses. He thought had been to eat in her office while going over the surveillance photos, but the night was wonderful. Rather than spend it indoors John led Helen out to the terrace that over looked the garden.

Sitting together Helen devoured the food John had made. She hadn't realized how hungry she was until she actually started eating. Then before she knew it the food was gone and she was sipping her wine. "That was delicious."

"Could you even taste it?" John picked up his wine glass settling back into the chair. "You ate so fast." These were the moments he enjoyed the most with Helen. He loved sitting with her watching her.

"Yes, I could taste it. Amazing as ever," Helen finished off the last trace of her wine and then poured herself another glass. She could get over how quiet it was. If they were back in their time they would never dare to be sitting out side enjoying a meal. The night would be dotted with explosions and brazen snipers. Even the windows of Helen's beloved Sanctuary were covered in three inches of solid steel.

"Does the silence unnerve you as well?" John asked setting his knife and fork in the center of the plate after finishing his late dinner. While he waned for her to answer he took a slow sip of his wine. For him it had been over 200 years of waiting to try this delicate bouquet and it had been well worth the wait. More than anything he was enjoying this because he was sharing it with Helen. He had waited long enough to do so and it had given the wine time to age even more into perfection.

"Yes, I don't trust the silence. I feel as if any minute a gun shot will sound or an explosion will light the night. Comes with living in a war zone I guess." Helen thought back to her trip to the jungle when she had been looking for a way to die. She had been taken into the future where she had been the cause of a deadly virus that had wiped out most of the world population of humans and abnormals. That knowledge still weighed on her mind and the only one she had ever told had been John; her eternal confidant. Even though he had been jack the Ripper, she still trusted him so much that it scared her sometimes. How could she have total faith in him? Easy, because she was still so in love with him, so much so that at times she thought her heart would break from the memories.

"It's easy to get used to. Maybe when we go home it will be as quiet there as it is now." John suggested. He wondered what waited for them back in their time, who would be waiting for them? Would they still be married when they returned him? Would they be lover? Friends? All these questions were weighing on his mind, growing louder and louder as the hours went on. John could never imagine a day without having Helen in his arms, having her hand resting comfortable in his, or tasting her kiss first thing in the morning. John never wanted to lose any of what he had with Helen. She was his world, his hair, the beat of his heart. Could he ever go back to being on the outside?

Helen could only shrug at that. She didn't want to think about what they would come across when they went home. Maybe they would cease to exist as they are now. Maybe they would go back to being enemies. Maybe, just maybe, they would be dead. Sometimes, late at night Helen still wished for the sweet relief that was the embrace of death. She wanted it, craved it like she craved John's caress. But it was John who kept her connected to the world of the living and she knew she did the same for him. Helen's craving for death was felt by John. He longed for it just as she did. Too much had happened to them for them not to want that final ending they should have had.

John gazed at his wife. He knew what she was thinking. Death. He thought about it often as well. John had been deaths instrument for so long. He had dispatched the unwary, the guilty, even the Cabal and at one time he had taken the lives of innocent working girls who had just being trying to survive. All he had delivered into deaths waiting care. But what of him? When would it be his time? When would death come for him? Helen kept him grounded, kept him breathing, as well as the promise of eternity he had given to her. John would love his wife for as long as she wanted, for as long as he was able. He always fell sway to what Helen wanted. John just wished that there was a way to chase the sadness, the pain, from her eyes and replace it with happiness and light.

"I think Tesla knows what we're up to, at least partially." Helen spoke gazing out at the night. She didn't need to be back in her office to know the meddling vampire had been in there. It was a gut feeling she had and those feelings were usually right. Now they would have to get to the blood before Nikola. Just another opponent to beat to the prize. Helen had no doubt that she and John would beat Nikola, but what would happen if he obtained the blood after they stole it. That was the real problem with Nikola. He was leech. He let you do all the hard work then he would fade out of the back ground, put a knife in your back and run off with what ever was left.

"Don't worry; we'll beat him in the end. We always do." John rose from his seat and crouched in front of Helen. "Nikola will not have the blood again unless you want him to."

"But that's just it; I don't anyone to have it. Not Nikola, not us, and not the rest of the world." Helen bent foreword, touching her forehead to John's and sighed. "I'm so tired of everything."

"I know how you feel," Taking his forehead from hers John angled his head kissing her. Gaining his feet he scooped her up into his arms and teleported them to the tent where their bed was waiting.

John laid her down gently keeping his lips to her while his fingers fiddled with the zippers that kept her boots on. John freed her legs of the boots she wore as he toed his off freeing his hands to fumble with her belt and buttons of her jeans. Helen's hands were not still. They moved to his shirt and tugged it free of his pants. Pushing it up, she forced his lips away from hers so she could pull it off of him and toss it to the ground. Abandoning her belt John tugged her shirt free, pulling it off her arms and over her head and down to the ground.

Helen needed to feel John's warm flesh beneath her fingers. With his shirt gone she lightly raked her nails down his back urging him closer and closer to her. As his mouth fused to hers, Helen freed his hair of the leather tie threading her fingers in his dark silky locks. This was what she needed, a few hours of unbridled passion to forget the troubles of her mind and the darkness creeping into her mind. John was the perfect distraction for her body, for her heart, and he could bring to life all the wicked fantasies her mind could conjure. His kiss, his body, walk the balm she needed to forget, to soothe her ravaged and bleeding soul from all the inner demons she carried around with her.


	5. Chapter 5

Summary: John and Helen come back to stop the first stages of a war that could break out between humans and Abnormals. **A/U**

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Sanctuary

Rating: T+

Pairing: Helen and John.

A/N: Sry for the LATE update but my muse abandoned me and left all my fanfics in a coma. He has been punished and is now working for me again.

**PREVENTION:**

Helen woke that morning with a feeling she hadn't had in a while; something good was going to happen today. She just knew it and she hoped that it was true. Rolling over Helen snuggled into John's side for a moment feeling him against her. He was still asleep, still lost in the world of the unconscious mind. She had only wished that she was still in that fog of the mind as well. It would have been preferable to the sight she saw walking across the lawn towards them now. Helen growled before she thought not to and the deep rumbling in her chest reverberated against John's side waking him up. Before he could say anything he looked in the same direction. "I wonder what he could possibly want?"

"Do you care?" John whispered dropping a light kiss to her temple and instant before he reached for his pants.

"Not really," Helen answered slipping down over the side of the bed retrieving her scattered clothing. She pulled on her pants and pulled on the shit she had grabbed, only the shirt was too big for her. Looking down at the buttons Helen realized that she was wearing John's black button up shirt. She buttoned up a few more buttons and shrugged. John, in her opinion, could go without a shirt. But John picked up his leather jacket, shrugged it on, and buttoned a few of the buttons. Helen looked at him nearly feeling her jaw drop at the sight of him, his pale skin framed by worn leather that had seen too many battles.

Nikola didn't want to go out there where they were, but he had to let them know that they what he found out about the small power device Helen had given to him. "This is as irritating to me as it is to you but I busted that little power cell. It's mean to power a large device, any device." Tesla took it out of his pocket fiddling with it, then turning it on. "My guess is it powers something big."

"That's your best guess. 'It powers something big'. Really?" Helen stood up placing her hands on her hips. Then lightening struck. The device Nikola was idly rolling around in his hands was the small power source they had been missing to power the 'time machine'. Helen and John had constructed the 'time machine' from an old diagram left behind by the Vampires, but knowing that the power source was from Hollow Earth made the 'time machine' from Hollow Earth as well. Stolen technology. The vampires were thieves. Did that surprise her? A little, but then she looked at Nikola and the shock wore off. "John, are you…"

"Yes, I believe I am." John answered without waiting for Helen to finish. He rose from the bed taking two steps, then he held out his hand for the device just waiting to see if Nikola would hand it to him.

Nikola looked at John's opened hand and debated sneering. But he surprised himself by setting the little power cell in Druitt's waiting hand. Lately he had been doing things that weren't of his normal character. It was odd, strange, with a little creepy thrown in. Nikola didn't want to change. He liked being just the way he was; he liked being nothing but a scientist. Only, seeing Helen, having her accuse him of stating a war made him feel guilty. Turning from the sight of them Nikola headed back across the back lawn and into the house.

John sat down on the edge of the bed looking the device over, "We could have turned this on ourselves." He muttered.

"Yes, but he doesn't know that. It's smart to keep Nikola under the illusion that he is more brilliant than everyone around him." She slid onto the bed behind John draping her arms over his shoulders and resting her hands over his heart. "As much as we dislike Nikola now, we need him. I hate to admit it but we do."

"Do you think he knows why we're here?" John asked leaning his head back against her shoulder.

"He's putting it together slowly. I know he is." Helen stated nipping John's ear. "Come on, we have work to do. And today I am feeling lucky."

"Lucky is it? Maybe I can help with that." Changing their positions John pinned Helen into the bed.

Helen brought her knees up against his hips, replying, "Oh you can help me. You're my ride." She nipped his lips lightly with a kiss.

"I knew you needed me for something darling." Stealing one more kiss John moved off his wife to pull on another black t-shirt since Helen seemed determined to wear his button up shirt.

Helen braced herself up on her elbows, still reclining on the bed, "I need you for a lot of things." Winking at him she slid of the bed once again putting her arms around his waist.

**HENRY'S LAB:**

Nikola had come back from outside and made a beeline straight for young Heinrich's lab so he could work out which location he would go to for the Source Blood. That would be the only reason Helen and John would have come back, risked changing their history. And it was why he had to get to it first. He hated being in Mortal purgatory. Just last week he had cut his hand and it hadn't healed instantly. He was a human, a mortal with frailties. Nikola couldn't think about dying, not when he still had so much to contribute. If this weird, oddly disturbing, couple were going after the blood then Nikola was as well. He hated being human. He was a vampire and the only son of a dead civilization. His identity was built on his vampiric nature. Nikola set about making plans to get to the blood before Helen and John.

**THAT AFTERNOON:**

Helen and John teleported to another defunct Cabal lab. She pulled out a scanner to try and detect and signs of body heat. There was nothing that she could find, but then again the scanner didn't detect things under ground. "It's clear, so far." Helen muttered. Putting the scanner back in her long leather coat she took John's hand as they casually walked through the open gate and up to a side entrance. "Think anyone is here?"

"I do not believe so. Look at the ground, no tracks. I highly doubt anyone is still using this facility." John answered taking his hand out of hers and slipping his arm around her waist just incase they had to teleport out in a hurry. It was just a feeling he had.

"John, you can let me breathe just a little." Helen took his arm from around her waist. As much as she loved being close to him, she needed to have free range of motion for anything they would encounter.

"I'm just being cautious." John whispered. "I want this as much as you do. But I don't have a good feeling."

"Just a few minutes can't hurt can it?" Helen smiled even though she had a bad feeling as well. But the blood was more important. They had to find it and seal it away forever. "I don't hear any movement for now. We should be safe."

John sighed following his wife into the darkness. Still his bad feeling did not abate; it only grew stronger with every step they took. Something was going to happen and Helen was going to suffer the most for it. "Helen wait…."

Helen turned to John seeing him in the dark. He looked worried, but he was listening and he needed her to stop moving. That energy elemental inside of him made him the best tracker she had and she used that to her advantage. John could pick up sounds and feel a prey's movement even more acutely than she could and she had been turned into a monster. "What?"

"Someone's here with us just a few levels down." John answered trying to use as much of the creatures skill without setting it free.

"Are you sure?" Helen asked although she knew the answer. John was sure, that much she could see in his eyes. "Then we should go and see who it is?" Helen pulled her gun turning back to head down the stairs just two levels. Maybe it was a person or scientist from the former Cabal who was moving the blood. Or gods forbid that it was Nikola. If Helen had to she would shoot him to keep him from sparking another war.

Nikola moved down the stairs carefully to avoid any sound at all. He wanted to get to the blood before Helen and John. A few minutes ago he had heard them talking, then all went silent. Either John or Helen knew he or a person was here. Nikola had to move quickly to get to the blood he could feel was waiting for him. There was no denying him the blood; it was apart of his identity. Nikola Tesla was the last surviving son of a dead civilization. He needed that part of him again. Being human didn't suit his pallet very well. Yes, he still drank wine like it was his substitute for food, but last week he had drank so much he suffered a hang over. How in the world had this happened to him?

Down in the dark Nikola slipped through the door and saw his prize; the blood. it was his road to salvation, a road back to himself. He had only a few minutes to locate a syringe and inject himself before Helen and John would happen upon him. This time Helen might shoot him for good and finally be done with him. Nikola wasn't sure how to feel about that. He knew the need Helen had for the former psychopath was something beyond love, t dealt with genetics more than anything. Something for whatever reason Nikola had never been able to measure up to Helen. That hurt him. Helen never thought he was good enough

Helen and John came through the door in time to see Nikola with a syringe to his arm. "NIKOLA! STOP!" Helen drew her gun training it on Nikola. Beside her John tensed, ready to use his power should Helen deem it so.

"Come to stop me I see. Why would you keep me human? I'm not!" Nikola shouted feeling the edges of madness take over. Too long was he weak and helpless with nothing but his electromagnetism to play with. No, he needed to be who he used to be. He needed to be a Vampire again. It was the only identity he knew.

"Don't make me shoot you. I will if you give me reason," Helen pulled the hammer back making her point clear. "And when I do, it will be a kill shot Nikola. I will not allow you to start a war." Helen was fighting the edge of tears. Nikola alone knew how to hurt her. She had had such high hopes for him when they had been at Oxford. But when he turned, became a vampire, that all went away and he was someone she didn't know. Nikola Tesla was no longer the man she had called her friend.

"How quaint," Nikola sneered at Helen then raked his gaze of John Druitt, her ever faithful pet. "You shoot me and Johnny Druitt here will dispose of my body. But tell me Helen, how will that work out for the Helen that inhabits this time frame. She wouldn't take too kindly to someone killing me."

"You overestimate your importance to her Nikola," John growled discreetly withdrawing a knife from his pocket should the need arise for him to use it.

"And what about you?" Nikola shouted. "Worth was right about you. You are a pathetic little dog lapping at her heels."

"Better than what you are. You are so hungry for the affection you think Helen should give you. Guess what? She'll never be yours." John took a step then stopped as Nikola held the needle poised to go into his flesh.

"Don't. Even. Think. About. It." Nikola made each word a deadly statement. He was poised to jab the needle into his arm.

"Nikola, please, don't do this." Helen tried, but se knew he would just as she knew she would have to shoot him. If it came down to killing Nikola, then she would kill him to safe guard the life of the abnormals. What was one life compared to that? She would mourn Nikola from the safety of john's arms, but knowing she would be in pain over the loss of another friend would not deter her from stopping him.

"Not even you can stop me Helen." And with that said Nikola quickly sank the needle home in his arm pushing the plunger all the way down giving him that long sought after identity that belonged to him alone. Just as he was feeling the effects white hot blistering pain resonated in his chest. Looking down he saw crimson blossom out from the hole in his chest. Nikola looked back to Helen and saw she had pulled the trigger. He fell to his knees with the life fading fast from him.

Helen wanted to scream, to rage, and curse the heavens. Nikola was always so stubborn and he never listened to anyone but his own bad judgment and ego. She lowered her arm still feeling the recoil of the gun shot. There were tears in her eyes that she refused to let fall. Taking out the cell phone Helen called will asking him to come to her location to retrieve Nikola's body.

John stayed where he, knew not to go to Helen when she was fresh off of a kill. Her body would be coming down; coming back from the cold remote place she went when she was committed to the kill. Instead he looked at Nikola seeing the empty syringe in his arm looking very much like a junkie dying from one last score turned OD. Going over to the body John removed the needle spying the empty beaker where the source blood had been stored. "Brought this on yourself old boy." John whispered closing Nikola's eyes.

"John…" Helen's voice was shaky. She held out her hand to her lover, her best friend, her husband just wanting him to come to her, to hold her. She needed his warmth after what se had just done. Helen always knew she was capable of killing, resigned to the fact that she could. When Nikola had been a vampire she had no moral qualms about shooting him, but this, all the blood. It got to her. She had just killed her last friend, the last of the Five besides her and John. What did that make her? Was she a monster?

John turned to Helen, went to her, and enveloped her in his arms holding her close giving her what she needed. And she needed him, his arms around her, his warmth seeping into her body taking away the cold. "I could tell you that you had no choice. That he forced your hand. That he was looking for a way to end it all. But that wouldn't be so. I'm the suicidal one, not Nikola. All he wanted was to a vampire again." John kissed the top of Helen's head giving her more comfort. "You did what you had to my love and Nikola did not heed your warnings."

"I know, but it still doesn't stop the pain." Helen shuddered snuggling closer to John. They were the only two left. That hurt her. It killed that last part of her that was truly human. "For all his arrogance and his short sighted schemes, Nikola was one of us."

"He stopped be one of us along time ago." John barely kept track of all the times Nikola had gone off on his own conducting experiments that narrowly put the rest of them in the view of the public.

"I'm ready to go home." She wrapped her arms around John's shoulders. Just this once she would let him carry her. She would let him be the strong one. Helen wanted to only be his wife, the one he guarded so fiercely.

John stood with his wife, his beloved, in his arms and turned to head out of the lab, turned away from the stench of fresh death. He made it up the stairs just as Will and Kate came through the doors. "He's down there." John motioned with his head not elaborating any more than that. He had to get Helen back to the Sanctuary. Tomorrow would be the need of their time and he wanted to make sure she had as much rest as she possibly could. Once outside in the fresh air John used his cursed ability to bring them back to the sanctuary. He had no idea what was going to happen to them. All John knew was that he and his wife were going home tomorrow. They would be pulled back through time and put back in the right year. He wasn't really concerned with the mechanics of it all just so long as he got his wife so far away from the people who reminded her of so much pain. Deep down John knew it wouldn't be as simple as all that. It would take time. lucky for them they had all eternity.

Helen didn't care where she or John ended up so long as they were away from Nikola's dead body. She would have hated John if it had been his hand that killed Nikola. But at the moment she didn't like herself all that well. Maybe when she and John got back to their time it would be full of night time quiet and day time adventure where the abnormals were quietly hidden from the eyes of the humans. Helen could only hope or else Nikola died for nothing. The only thing she could focus on was her next breath. She had shot Nikola dozens of times, but she had the knowledge that he came back to life. Even the times she had shot John her heart knew he was not dead. Now in the darkness of the sanctuary she could feel the depth of her pain. "Do you feel it?" Helen asked.

"Yes, my Love I do. " John answered, even though he had never liked Nikola, tolerated him at best when they were human. John felt the soul shattering pain that Helen was feeling in regards to Nikola. They had been a dysfunctional family of sorts and it hurt to know that another member was now gone. "Tell me what I can do and I'll do it."

"It's a little cliché." Helen responded.

"I think we need cliché right now." John rubbed his cheek against the silky soft locks of her hair.

Helen angled her body so she could tangle her fingers in his hair, "Never let me go. I want you to hold onto me for eternity and then some." She placed her lips to his to give him a quivering kiss. Suddenly she was so cold and no amount of heat from John could get her warm. Shock had to be settling in.

John could walk the Sanctuary blind folded if he had to. Keeping his lips lightly to Helen's, John walked up the staircase and to the last room at the top of the lading where he knew the bath to be. It was a large red marble tub with veins of black big enough for four grown men. John set Helen down gently on the ledge before crouching in front of her. First he started with her boots, unbuckling and unzipping them so he could take them off her legs. Next came her long leather coat, and her shirt. John pushed them away from the edge of the tub s they wouldn't get wet. Reaching around Helen he turned on the water letting the steam waft around them.

Helen felt like a ghost with John taking her clothes off. They were the only ones left alive. That ate at what was left of her heart. She closed her eyes as the first hints of steam rushed at her back. The warm water would feel good. John had just put his hands to the closure of her pants hen she stopped him. Rising to her shaky feet Helen slid his jacket off of his shoulders and made quick work of his shirt. "I need you," Her voice broke and tears fell. Helen dropped her arms being pulled once again into John's strong waiting embrace.

John held her close knowing the pain she was going through. It wasn't as strong a response as when James had died, but Nikola's death still cut her to the core. John felt the loss as well.

He managed to get her undressed the rest of the way and resting in the warm rose scented soothing water while he undressed as well to join her. John relined behind her, taking her once again into his arms with her back against his chest.

**MORGUE:**

Will and Kate lifted the body bag on to one of the slabs in the Sanctuary morgue. Neither of them had dared to speak on the drive back because neither of them knew what to say at that moment. They knew what had happened just by looking at the scene and he fact that Druitt was carrying her out of the building.

"I can't believe the boss actually killed him." Kate muttered looking at the bag, waiting for it to start moving.

"Yeah, I know. It's… crazy." Will said. It was all he could say, all he could think to say. Barely anyone liked Nikola around the Sanctuary. They all tolerated him and on his good days he was surprisingly helpful. But to be faced with his death, that didn't sit well.

**BATH:**

John lifted his foot out of the still warm water to brush his big toe over the faucet while Helen drew odd patterns on his chest. She had come back into herself slightly; the shock of killing Nikola finally wearing off. He was happy about this, John hated to see her so sad. "What should we do when we go home?" John asked.

"If things are different, we'll have a new world to discover. I'll have more work and you will have more time on your hands." Helen too john's left hand in her right hand lacing their fingers together. "Or, there is the possibility that things in our time could be far worse."

John kissed the top of Helen's head, drawing the scent of roses into his lungs. "Let's focus on the positive for a while. There has been enough bad." John tightened his grip on her body, on her hand, and continued, "We need a ray of hope about the future."

"Then, I'm sure everything will be better when we go home." A sudden thought struck her. Helen sat up in the water and turned to John. "What if we can't go home?"

"Helen, you know what Nikola said. No matter what we change, the energy that brought us here won't keep us. It wills till pull us back to our time." John just hoped that the arrogant, now dead, vampire was right. As much as he enjoyed the peace and quiet of this time, he was eager to go home to have his wife by his side and know that they weren't under constant scrutiny by people who were their friends.

"I don't want to think about it." Helen sighed, "I don't want to think period. I just want you to hold me and to let this incredibly warm soothing water lull me." She hugged him closer to her feeling every inch of him against her skin. Tomorrow would be soon enough to worry about anything and everything.


	6. Chapter 6

Summary: John and Helen come back to stop the first stages of a war that could break out between humans and Abnormals. **A/U**

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Sanctuary

Rating: T+

Pairing: Helen and John.

A/N: Sry for the LATE update but my muse abandoned me and left all my fanfics in a coma. He has been punished and is now working for me again.

**PREVENTION:**

Helen stood out in the courtyard waiting for John to join her. She had been feeling a low tugging all over her skin since she had woken up this morning. The energy that had brought them back had been steadily until it started to burn under he skin. They were going home no matter what. Helen would be going back to a time, hopefully with a better out come, with the death of Nikola Tesla on her conscience. John had done his best last night in the bath to help her get over her guilt but it still weighed heavily on her mind. For all of Nikola's faults he had still been her friend. But Nikola had also forced her response; she had been committed to killing him. At least she could tell herself that she was going to a better time. Helen, as well as John, knew that this had always been a one way trip.

"Helen?" John had been watching her for a few minutes as she dissected the events of yesterday. The death of Nikola still darkened her thoughts. She knew she could pull the trigger and had done so many times to Nikola, but to actually kill him weighed like a stone on her chest. John could see the repercussions of what she did lingering about her like ghosts of the past.

"Hello John," She held out her hand to him waiting for his strong arms to come around her and soothe most of the hurt she was feeling. John was stronger than she was most of the time. it was that strength that she relied on to fight the war they had been forced into years and years before.

"We should be going home soon," John muttered, "That should make things better for you." Their journey was coming to an end.

"I just hope things are different when we get there." Helen replied holding on to him tighter. Though, she knew that it would not be her eyes in which she saw this new future.

**THE MORGUE:**

Nikola's head throbbed, his chest burned, and his throat was dry. He needed something to drink. It was that overwhelming hunger e had never forgotten, but had gained a temporary reprieve from with his mortality. Only, he wasn't mortal anymore. Nikola was back to being a vampire. Lengthening his claws he cut his way out of the body bag he was in. "Funny, I don't remember being put in here." He sat up and cringed. A change of clothes was called for. Nikola didn't wear blood very well. Swinging his legs over the side of the metal table he stood up and wavered taking the time to become accustomed to being alive again. Though, before he changed clothes Nikola was in desperate need of a drink.

**SANCTUARY FOYER:**

Doctor Helen Magnus had never been so glad in all her life to be home than she was at that moment. What was supposed to be a simple conference had morphed into a cornucopia of problems revolving in and around herself and John Druitt. Instead of going to speak about the influx of abnormals to the Sanctuary the other heads of houses had wanted to know why John was still roaming free and now locked in a secured facility. To his credit John had been calm, cool, collected, and diplomatic while being questioned. Helen hadn't believed him capable of reigning in his temper. But as she watched him nearly being interrogated a spark of pure pride blossomed in her chest. Maybe there was some hope for them after all.

"Oh God, Doc, you're back!" Henry nearly ran down the stairs and over to his boss.

"Hi, Henry…" Helen replied casting a sideways long glance at John who was attempting not to smile at her resident werewolf's enthusiasm. "Did something happen I should be aware of?"

"Oh you know, just a little of this and a little of that. Nothing blew up." Henry babbled just so happy to have current Magnus back and not future Magnus. Making the distinction was starting to hurt his head.

"Ok…" Helen looked at John, "That's good to know I guess." She smiled at Henry though. He had his own unique way of communicating.

Will came down the stairs to see Magnus, Druitt, and Henry. His eyes settled on Druitt noting that he had no hair. 'Ok, this is current Druitt and Magnus. Thank god!' Will thought taking the rest of the stairs two at a time. "Magnus I am so happy that you are back."

"Apparently…" John muttered only his eyes were not on the small group near him. Just beyond the stairs stood two people he wouldn't have thought to be seeing. John saw himself and another Helen standing side by side. The duplicate Helen was smiling a gentle smile that John had not seen in one hundred years.

"John, what are…?" Her eyes came to a stop on two figures standing just out of ear shot. They were none other than herself and John. How could this be? That John was a replica of the man she had loved so passionately well over a hundred years ago. But those two could not be from the past. Then… No she didn't want to think of the alternative.

Helen Druitt looked at her past self staring at her right now and Helen knew what must be going through her mind. So many conflicting thoughts. So many conflicting theories. It was a wonder steam was coming out of her ears. Taking her hand out of her husbands grasp Helen went to stand before Helen Magnus. "Hi."

"Oh dear God," Magnus said without thinking. She was looking at a mirror image of herself. Nothing had changed on the surface, but there was a rage and a hate in the other woman's eyes that sent a chill through Helen's soul. Something primal radiated out wrapping around her nearly forcing her back out of misguided fear, the fear of a prey looking eye to eye with a predator.

"I understand this is strange for you." Helen said sensing the unease, "But I believe this was meant to happen." She held out her left hand to her former self and waited knowing that Magnus's eyes were roaming over the silver band gracing her left finger. "I'm Doctor Helen Druitt from the future."

"The future?" Helen repeated as a question. "Are you mad?" Time travel was just as ridiculous as bending the laws of space and time to travel through rifts as Adam had done, but that didn't make it any less real. Helen still had some aches to prove it.

"Last time I checked I was quite sane, at my whit's end, but still relatively sane." Future Helen answered with a sly smile.

"How?"

"The Vampires." Future John Druitt came out of the shadows and stood by his wife whilst locking gazes with his former self, the not so stable John Druitt.

"They had a device that would allow time to be null and void. John and I came back to fix things that have not happened to you but have severely changed our lives." Out of habit and need Helen reached for John's hand, lacing their fingers. "Our week is almost up. In fact we have a matter of minutes left." She looked to Magnus, "In your office there is a disc along with several files that you will need. And this…" Taking her hand out of John she pulled off the wedding band. She took her past self's hand placing the silver band in her palm. "He needs you," Helen whispered low enough that only the other Helen could hear.

John watched every move his wife had taken. He in turn took off the silver band looking at the inscription for what would be the last time. _Eternity._ That was their life, no matter if he was sane or if she had been turned into a predator. They were too tightly bound together to ever be free enough for another person. In truth no other person would ever be enough to satisfy. Looking at his former self John tossed the other Druitt the silver band. "Be sure to get years of use out of that." And then he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Why give these to us? Do you know something we don't?" John questioned his future self while looking at the band noticing the inscription. It was unsettling to see them together where he and Helen could barely be in the same room for any amount of time.

"No, everything is different. We changed what we needed to and caused one unintended death." John answered thinking back to Nikola in the morgue.

"One unintended death?" Helen questioned future John.

"Yes, you're Nikola is lying in the morgue." He answered calmly. John had lived for well over two hundred years and he was accustomed to all of Helen's, past and future, moods. John's only recourse in dealing with them was to be calm and to be rational.

"Did you kill him?" Magnus asked taking a step towards future John, anger and hurt radiating through her at the news that Nikola was dead. It wouldn't surprise her if John had been the one to kill Nikola.

"I did." Helen steered the anger stirring in her former self so that she took the brunt of it. She had been the one to pull the trigger and she regretted it. "But all is not lost. He might not be dead. Nikola injected himself with the rest of the source blood; the blood we came back to destroy."

"We don't have much time left." John drew his wife into his arms.

"What will happen to you both?" Helen questioned looking at her future self so comfortable in the arms of a man she had known so well and loved so much.

"We don't know. Hopefully we'll just fade to dust." She chuckled. "The future is yours now."

"You're going to just die?" Will interjected. He couldn't believe it.

"Yes, Will. John and I knew that no matter what we changed that there would be no place for us. Death is our release, our payment, for what we have fought for and what we have endured." She looked at her past self standing next to the darker version of John, "Besides we're not really dead. We're right there."

Keeping his wife close John took off the modified EM cloak Nikola had once built for Helen's sojourn to Hollow Earth. He had fiddled with it for years turning it into the perfect cage for the monstrous energy elemental that had polluted his soul for so many years. "One more gift." John tossed the device to his past self. "It will bring some measure of peace." Anger, pain, and rage washed through him, but in a few more minutes it wouldn't matter. He only held Helen closer fighting back the worst of the emotions.

John watched his future self, the change almost instantaneous back to the monster he had been for years. Was he ready to for that peace? Was he ready to try again with Helen? He put the cloak in his pocket just watching the other two. A bright light formed around the two from the future. It was so bright John almost had to turn his face away. But he kept his eyes locked on two people who had risked so much only to gain death as a reward. He surmised that was their true goal; death. They wanted it. It was after all a release from the pain of living in a world that was always changing. The five had remained the same, and would remain the same until their unnatural lives ended. John could see the allure in what the other two had done.

Helen stood beside John and watched the blinding light grow and grow to encompass the two people from the future. What would have caused her to come back, risk a certain death, just to change the future? Helen knew the answers would be contained in the files her future self had mentioned; files that were currently in her office. This was too much to digest in a span of minutes, even for her. And Helen had been subjected to some pretty bizarre events in her life time. She reached out to John and took his hand while keeping her eyes locked on the turning figures being melded together. One minute she was staring at herself and another John and the next both figures collapsed into a pile of dust. Helen felt a single tear roll down her cheek.

"Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust." John whispered tightening his hand in Helen's.

"Do you want…?" Will started to ask but couldn't find the words to finish his question.

"No, I'll…"

"We'll take care of it." John interrupted shooting a menacing look to the werewolf and the protégé. "Go on, I'm sure you two have other demands on your time that do not require you to be here." John kept his glare rooted firmly on the younger men as they hurried up the stairs.

Helen didn't argue with John about dismissing her staff. She was still too stunned at watching her own death. But the woman that stood before her was not her, only wearing her face. That Helen Magnus was different; had lived a different life. She was trying to tell herself that. It just wasn't sinking in.

**NORTH TOWER:**

Helen stood with John as the wind kicked up; swirling around them John turned one of her delicate Chinese urns on its side spilling the ashes out into the waiting hands of the wind that would carry them away to their final resting place. "It's funny, I never thought I would be scattering my own ashes." She mumbled for lack of something better to say.

"I never thought _**I**_ would be scattering my own ashes." John retorted turning the urn all the way upside down. Setting the delicate antique down, he stood beside Helen watching the ashes being carried away. John sighed stuffing his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket feeling the silver cuff the other Druitt had given him. Momentarily he thought about putting the cuff on to see if it actually worked, but now was not the time for it. Leaning in close John asked, "Do you want to get a drink?"

Helen raised her gaze to look into his eyes and replied, "I would love a glass of red wine."

John nodded placing his hand on her lower back teleporting them to her office where he left her to sit on the couch while he went in search of the right wine. But first he wanted to see Nikola's body in the morgue just to make sure the former vampire was still there. He walked into the cold room and went right up to the black bag, only, there was no body inside. There was blood, but no Nikola. John turned a full circle of the room searching Nikola out, but Tesla was no where to be found. There was a sinking feeling that he and Helen would see Tesla again and it would not be on the best of terms. John feared it would be Helen to take the brunt of the confrontation. Leaving the morgue John went to the wine cellar to get the wine.

Helen sat curled up in one corner of her couch running through the events of the day. She had started out having a most agreeable morning with John; they had shared breakfast together. It had actually been quite pleasant. Then there had been the final round of questions from the head of houses about John being allowed freedom. Helen assured them all that John would stay well out of sight if he was to leave the Sanctuary, to which he agreed. Later that afternoon she and John had taken lunch together before coming back to her Sanctuary, her home, and finding what they had found. Now it was all taking its toll on her mind. Helen slipped her hand into her jacket pocket, fingers caressing the warm silver band. Pulling it out, she noticed the inscription. "Eternity," Helen whispered feeling a pang of sadness slice through her heart. John had promised her just that a long time ago when he had proposed, and then he promised it to her again just before he sacrificed his freedom to save her Sanctuary, to save her. John would always save her.

John strode back into Helen's office to see her where he had left her, on the couch. He took a seat next to her setting out the two glasses and bottle of red wine. Popping the cork John poured a generous amount in each glass, enough so that it would soothe their ravaged souls for a time. taking both glasses in his hands he offered one to Helen and waited for her to take it.

There was the glass of wine she had asked for, right there in John's hand, but she didn't want to reach for it. She wanted to keep holding on to the ring and remembering his whispered words, his promises. Closing her fingers into a fist Helen held the ring in her left hand while her right hand reached for the wine glass. "Thank you," She said her voice barely more than a whisper.

"You should know that Nikola is no longer in the morgue." John inhaled the gentle bouquet of wine before taking a slow sip.

"I figured as much. He's too hard to kill," Helen sipped her wine keeping her eyes on John. Nikola was always finding ways to cheat death, this was just yet another of his escapes.

"Yes, he is." John said. He wasn't sure how to continue. He wasn't sure what he wanted to say.

"What do you think their life was like together?" Helen didn't look at John as she asked her question, she couldn't bear it.

"I'm sure they were happy, in love, and devoted to each other. Much as we were before the blood and for a short time after it," John answered not looking at Helen. He kept his gaze on the flames dancing in her hearth. Living for years without her had been torture colored by hate and a thirst to kill. Now he had a way to curb the compulsion of murder, but he wasn't sure he was ready to let go of the feeling that had kept him company for so long; not even for the chance to live within Helen's arms again. John set aside his wine glass choosing to get comfortable in the opposite corner of the couch. He stretched his arm out while keeping his gaze on the fire.

Helen put his glass on the table next to his and without trying to think about it too much she changed positions aligning her body to John's side while resting her head on his chest. Instantly his arms came around her. This was her harbor, this was a place she felt the safest; John's arms. It didn't matter to her that John was still unstable, he was John. She could look for ways, invent excuses as to why he was no longer the man she loved, but when she had heard his answer she knew that he hadn't really changed all that much. The Ripper was a mask he wore for the world. Here in the dark, in private, he could be John with her. Slowly she slipped the silver wedding band on her finger feeling the life she was living take on more meaning. Helen had a cause she was fighting for; the protection of the Abnormals from the humans who wouldn't understand. But her life had been consumed by it ever since Ashley's death. With John, Helen felt that burden lighten.

John tightened his arms around Helen, holding her as close as he could while feeling the weight of the cuff in his pocket. He wanted so much to be with her but he feared that she had be right about him and that creature was only part of his madness. Taking his left arm from around Helen, he reached into his pocket not for the cuff but for the silver band his future self had tossed to him. Out of his periphery he had seen Helen place the matching band on her finger. John slid the band over his left ring finger watching as the flames glinted on the silver. Funny how something so small could hold the power to keep a man frozen in time with awe.

Helen gazed at John's ring the same way she had been looking at her own. She placed her left hand in his, palm to palm, where she laced their fingers together. "Are you going to stay?" Helen asked. Right now she didn't want to think. She didn't want to feel anything other than John's arms around her. Everything else just faded away, even all thoughts pertaining to the files her future self mentioned.

"For as long as I can," John answered kissing her temple. Tonight when they separated he would put the cuff on to see what peace felt like again. Tomorrow would be soon enough to find the answers of their future, if they had one. John desperately wanted to believe that they had a future together that didn't involve hate and mistrust towards the other.

**THE END.**


End file.
